Election Day Gif Recap (Apologies to @goosesroost)

It was a bad night to be a Democrat in Erie County. I haven’t yet decided what it all means, except that the Republican candidates and messaging resonated with voters, while the Democrats’ didn’t.

After years of concern-trolling then-Comptroller Mark Poloncarz’s lack of accounting credentials, the Republicans have re-elected a guy with no financial or legal credentials of any sort.

To top it off, they viciously and dishonorably attacked a civic activist who has a 20-year record of working outside the political system to help reform Erie County government and make it more efficient.

After all, he committed the sin of “paying off a tax debt over time”. It was like saying someone defaulted on buying a couch because they bought it on credit.

Republicans are also big fans of the “rule of law”, “term limits”, and the “constitution”. That’s why they re-elected Sheriff Tim Howard to a third term.

This is the same Tim Howard who mishandled the Joan Diver investigation, mismanaged the holding center, and saw numerous escapes, including Ralph “Bucky” Phillips, who went on to murder some more.

But this year, Howard demagogued the NY SAFE Act, appointing himself a de facto Supreme Court Justice and declaring the law unconstitutional before the Court of Appeals ever saw it.

For their part, the Pigeon cabal that helped to sabotage the Erie County Democratic Committee’s endorsed Sheriff candidate with $112k in likely illegal spending completely abandoned their pick, Dick Dobson, when he outlived his usefulness.

We also saw a Republican legislative majority emerge yesterday, and time will tell how this will play out. After all, the legislature only has control and discretion over about $100 million; 10% of a billion-dollar budget. I expect more calls for road repairs and less money for social services and things that matter to poor urban residents.

In particular, Ted Morton, who lost his job and the license to do his job was elected, after launching a despicable, ugly, and dishonorable smear campaign against Wynnie Fisher. In fact, Fisher’s malevolent neighbors defamed her to the Pigeon-backed guy she beat in the primary, who then turned the information over to the Republicans. Hey, Ted Morton, Kristy Mazurek, and Wes Moore,

Same thing in Orchard Park, where a nasty smear campaign against Republican Pat Keem seems to have backfired on incumbent Janis Colarusso, removing her from office.

On the bright side, although unsuccessful, Republican Jen Stergion ran an energetic and – more importantly – honorable race against Lynn Marinelli. I hope to see more from her in the future.

Mark Manna was unsuccessful in his effort to unseat Dr. Barry Weinstein as Amherst town supervisor, but we haven’t heard the last from him, either.

The Pigeonistas stayed home after helping to sabotage the primaries in September. It’s not about good government or a strong Democratic party with them – it’s about subterfuge and helping Republicans.

Barbara Miller-Williams was elected to the county legislature again, and it will be interesting to watch and see with whom she decides to caucus. They might want to hire Cash Cunningham to help with this free-for-all.

And now that the Republicans control the legislature, the patronage gravy train is going to have a brand-new terminal station.

Oh, Byron Brown won re-election to a third term. Our caretaker mayor will take care of ribbon cuttings and patronage hires for another 4 years.

Sergio Rodriguez, for his part, ran an honorable race and talked about the issues that the big money and elites in Buffalo would prefer to ignore. After all, we have some Wrights, sunsets over water, a suburban office park near downtown, and the best street grid, ever. Sergio, thank you for your efforts and for talking about the real issues that aren’t being addressed meaningfully in city hall.

Thanks anyway, voters!

I’ll be joining Mike Caputo on WBEN 930-AM at 10am Wednesday to talk about all of this nonsense. Here’s audio of me with Mike Caputo on WBEN from this morning:

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15 comments

Your next podcast should probably be you and Chris Smith vomiting into buckets. Ye Gods, no wonder we have horrible government around here. Barbara Miller-Williams gets a resurrection? Byron Brown sleepwalks to a third term? A comptroller whose only fiscal qualification is apparently his ethnicity? Holy Hell. And where does a guy like Sergio Rodruiguez go from here? He’s the type of voice so desperately needed in this region, and the collective response was “LA LA LA CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF COINS JANGLING IN MY WAR CHEST LA LA LA”.

Sophie from Cheektowaga called it…”Gosh darn! Go Bills! Go Stefan!” I haven’t seen as egregious a choice since the duty dodging Texas Air National Guard member made a decorated Vietnam vet out to be unpatriotic.

When you write your own citation for your medals, its easier to get them. Once you have them, poor show to throw them at the White House. Throwing your comrades in arms under the bus after you get back is dirty pool too. He’s not unpatriotic—Treason is a better word.

I get what happened with Pigeon and his suddenly disappearing support for Dobson, but the ECDC deserves the lion’s share of the criticism here. They backed Dunn, for no other reason than the fact that he has money, and then watched him completely half-ass the run up to the primary. Worse yet, he then threw Dobson and the entire Democratic Party under the bus when he suddenly decided to become an independent candidate. Meanwhile, the ECHC failed to so much as give Dobson enough money to air a commercial.

Howard was completely beatable, as he always is. ECDC backed the wrong horse and handed him the election.

Well Color me surprised. I didn’t think Stefan had a chance and IMO didn’t deserve one. Where that win came from probably has many R’s scratching their heads. Tim Howard getting re-elected may give you nutless gun fraidy cats the idea that there’s 2 other kinds of people. Those who own guns and want to keep them, and those who don’t own guns but want to. Truly sorry for Buffalo. 4 more years of a brainless robot cutting ribbons. What happened in the EC Legislature? Miller-Williams may very well feel the only way she can help her constituents is to caucus with the Republicans. I know at least 1 Common Council member who supported Brown because if he didn’t and Brown won, his district would be shat upon for the next 4 years. Ugly business, Politics.

Having lived here now for nine years it has become apparent that the Erie County Democratic party is helpless and hapless. With such a majority in this county it should be easy…but…this county party is at war with itself.
You have in-fighting that detracts from accomplishments just because two factions each want control. You have Zellner and Mack from Cheektowaga both wanting to be the big swinging dick. They don’t communicate, cooperate or coordinate. They just work at loggerheads with each other.
Then there is Mayor Brown. He’s built a considerable machine in the city but uses it only when he needs it himself. He seems to do nothing to coordinate with his party on a county-wide basis. He makes no effort to get out the vote…unless he feels he himself is being seriously challenged.
The party is in disarray and has been for years. The party needs to acknowledge this, take a look at their actions that have caused so many republicans to be elected in a heavily democratic county, and step down. They are become a model of failure. It’s must time for a different direction.

“And now that the Republicans control the legislature, the patronage gravy train is going to have a brand-new terminal station.”
But how can this be? Brave Stefan promised to derail that train. Surely he’s not a liar or a moron!

Alan, allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance isn’t just for those going to grad/professional schools. Even young people with full-time jobs (or, those that are stitching together multiple part-time gigs) have found it increasingly more difficult to obtain health insurance on their own or through their employers. The ACA is literally a life-saver for many of those people, and the older generations need to realize just how different things are from even a few decades ago.